The Cell Isolation/Organ Function Core provides a unique skill set and expertise to Rl vascular biologists by providing quality assurance in isolation, characterization, and propagation of vascular derived cells and fibroblasts and cardiopulmonary organ function analyses. The centralization of the cell isolation and organ function measurements will help investigators minimize the variability in sample preparation thus providing uniformity in data acquisition throughout all COBRE Projects and for other Rl vascular biologists. Isolation, characterization, and propagation of the cells is time-consuming and costly; thus the services provided by this Core permit the Project and Pilot Investigators to focus their efforts on aspects of their research endeavors related to experimental design, execution and interpretation. Additionally, the Core provides the expertise for assessing cardiac function, pressure-volume system for simultaneous high-fidelity intracardiac pressure-volume analysis, as well as lung function. As our Project and Pilot Investigators and/or other Rl vascular biologists experiments develop, so will their cell isolation needs; thus the Core will expand to meet these needs by providing expertise in the isolation of primary cultures of cardiac or pulmonary endothelial cells, fibroblasts, as well as vascular smooth muscle cells. Most of the needed equipment, facilities, and personnel are already in place at the Vascuiar Research Laboratory at the Providence VAIVIC, thus the Core will continue to serve as a resource for investigators in Rl after the COBRE funding is complete. The overall goal of the Core is to facilitate the scientific objectives of the Project and Pilot Investigators by providing essential services in: i) Isolation of pulmonary and cardiac endothelial cell and ventricular fibroblast cells; characterization, propagation, and biochemical analysis; ii) Endothelial progenitor cell and microparticle isolation from patient blood; iii) Measurement of heart and lung function. Secondary goals of this Core are to enhance reproducibility of data and experimental endpoints, and increasing the efficiency and productivity of each project.